Orthorectification of IKONOS and impact of different resolution DEM

IKONOS image has been wildly used in city planning, precision agriculture and emergence response. However, the accuracy of IKONOS Geo product is limited due to distortion caused by terrain relief. Orthorectification was performed to remove the distortion and the impact of different DEM on orthorectification were evaluated. 38 ground control points (GCPs) and 25 independent check points (ICPs) were collected. DEMs were generated from 1∶10 000 and 1∶50 000 topographic maps. Results show that RMS error at the check points is 1.554 0 m using DEM generated from 1∶10 000 topographic map, which can meet the accuracy requirement of IKONOS Precision product (1.9 m RMSE). While RMS error is 2.572 4 m using DEM generated from 1∶50 000 topographic map.